Archive for the ‘Healthy Church’ Category

Pastors’ Huddle at Heritage Bible Church

February 11, 2012

This month will end in a very exciting way for me and perhaps many fellow pastors. I will be participating in what we have so far named a “Pastors’ Huddle” at Heritage Bible Church in Greer, SC. We aren’t sure what to call it since there are no shortages of pastoral conferences to attend, but we feel like this is more than just a conference. We aren’t seeking a following or to become anything “national.” It’s just us and we have wonderful relationships with each other. We also have similar goals and passions for Christ and His Church.  That really is about it–nothing fancy, just love for God and love for people.

This is the second year of such a meeting and it is shaping up to be an encouraging time of prayer, worship, fellowship and re-tooling for the pastors attending. It will begin on Sunday morning at HBC with Pastor Danny Brooks preaching. In the evening and each evening following we will hear Chris Anderson from Tri-County Bible Church in Madison, Ohio. He is a church planter, hymn writer, and a shepherd. Monday through Wednesday there will be times of prayer, worship, discussion, and building of relationships with men who are on the front lines of ministry including many of the HBC church planters. There will also be times for the wives of the attending pastors to meet for prayer and discussion. Here is some basic information.

February 26-29, 2012

Theme:  Cultivating a Healthy Church, Home, & Heart

Purpose: To provide a time of spiritual and physical refreshment through helpful discussion and strategic planning for our future ministry together in establishing and strengthening local churches in all the world.

Sessions:

Cultivating a Healthy Church – The Centrality of the Gospel – Danny Brooks

Cultivating a Healthy Mind – Christ Gives us Truth – Matthew Hoskinson

Cultivating a Healthy Discipleship – Knowing and Showing Christ – Eric Sipe

Discussion to include:

What Keeps Us From Resting – Life in the Ministry

What Keeps Our Homes Healthy – Life in the Pastors Family Life

What Defines our Mission – Our Theology

If you or your pastor is at all interested in coming, please feel free to comment here, email me, or contact HBC. The cost is minimal but the investment is for life.  See you there!

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Bearing One Another’s Burdens

January 9, 2012

“Surely, God doesn’t expect us to bear others’ burdens…does He? I mean, aren’t my own burdens enough?”
Maybe this crossed you mind–or at least it trickled across the bottom of the screen of your mind like the sports ticker on your TV. Being a member of God’s family, the church, is not for spectators. Nowhere in Scripture do you find genuine believers on the sidelines as it were. There’s too much at stake. The name and glory of our risen Christ is constantly being displayed accurately when we actually be a church rather than do church.
Paul’s words in Galatians 6:1-5 are gripping. Paul gives two scenarios where people are burdened and then he challenges each of us with how we look our own burdens.
1. Bear the burdens of the broken. People are broken and it’s always because of sin and yes, they are caught–trapped! Every time people squirm under the bondage of sin they do further damage to their lives and those around them. Spiritual people rescue. Spiritual people bring relief. Relief comes through loving and grace-filled confrontation coupled with perceptive strategy to live out their freedom in Christ.

2. Bear the burdens of the burdened. Sin weighs on every life it touches. The writer of Hebrews talks about “sin and weight” (Heb 12:1). People carry needless weights. Look around you. Do you see any one who is not carrying one of these two burdens?

Paul’s exhortation to all of us today is examine yourself in two critical areas:

Think correctly of yourself. Wow, that’s bold, Paul. “Do you imply we often don’t think correctly of ourselves?” I think he does think that. I think he thought that about himself. He claimed to be chiefest of sinners, after all! Most of the time we live unaware of others’ sin and weights it is because we think more highly of ourselves than we ought. We are too involved in our world. We are busy hiding, ducking, repairing the walls we have erected, or we are recoiling from our own hurts. This is paralyzing and blinds us severely to the needs of others.

Read your environment. The “load” in V5 speaks of a small backpack type of load. Here, Paul is urging discernment in just how we handle peoples’ burdens. A soldier needs his backpack and it is given by his commander. We don’t want to remove that. God is at work in peoples’ lives and if we are marked with the “Messiah Complex” where we are the solution to everyone’s burden, then we are not really doing God’s work.

Bear one anothers’ burdens this week. Give yourself away. Christ did!

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Hidden Sin

January 6, 2012

One of the first results of sin in the lives of Adam and Eve was their attempt to hide…behind fig leaves of all things. That had to be uncomfortable, but let’s not go there.
Hiding has been with us ever since. Yes, we are all still participating and pretending to hide. Many are uncomfortable, in fact, very uncomfortable, but still insist upon pretending to hide. One of the peculiarities about sin is that sin piles on top of other sins and makes it hard to sort out. So, over time, some sin remains hidden.
This frequently happens in discipleship of someone. They begin to live a life of repentance and before long they find another sin the Holy Spirit shows them they had not noticed. O, it was there, but they were too busy indulging in other areas.
A friend of mine owns a junk yard. He is one of my favorite people. He told me one of his yearly tasks is cleaning up his yard. He tells his men to go and remove everything they can see into a pile. When they finish, he sends them out the next day to pick up everything they can see and put it into the pile. He said every year they are amazed that they find so much this time because they “picked everything up yesterday.” He does this for several days until the yard is clean. His point is clear. When the big things are picked up, the next day the small things are then big and easy to see. This process continues until the yard is cleaned.
Sin is the same way. So many people will not go out the next day because they think they have already taken care of the “big ones.” Repentance must be a daily examination. Very often people will get distracted by others’ sin or some theological glitch and will suddenly use this as a way of not having to go into repent mode and will then use these as justification for their own sin. They will leave churches, friends, gospel fellowship simply because of “hidden sins” are not dealt with. The hope is their sin will stay hidden. This is self-deception.
Remember my friend and his junk yard.

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Is Your Church a Healthy Church?

January 4, 2012

This time of year everyone is thinking about getting in shape, losing weight, and getting a handle on several areas of discipline in life. But what about the church? A healthy church should at times examine themselves as well. Paul told the people of Corinth individually to examine themselves right before the partaking of communion. It is also a good thing for the church to examine themselves as to their health as a body of believers. Here are some things to think about.
1.   Is there healthy worship?  Worship is a buzz word today, but it shouldn’t scare you. Healthy worship is important. Is worship thought through by the leadership? Is there understanding of all that should be included in a “service of worship?” Is there follow-up discussion after the service with a healthy examination if the goals were reached?

2.   Is there healthy view of Scripture? Are the elders spending sufficient time in prayer and the Word? Is there exegetical accuracy? Is there homelitical clarity? Is there passion and energy in the delivery? Is there sufficient illustration? Is there discussion after the message by the leadership that includes careful critique of both exegesis and delivery?  What are the common mistakes that are made and is there a plan in place to fix them?  Often, a high view of Scripture means you can’t ever question the pastor.  A humble pastor will desire feedback and constantly look for ways to communicate Scripture because he has a high view of Scripture and a low view of himself.

3.   Is there a healthy view of membership? Membership is vital for many reasons but none more vital than simple good health.  Membership is often looked at as an option and only for those who are pious. Scripture gives a different story. When the early church began people who were born again were “added” to the church daily (Acts 2:47). This opened the door to careful accountability and shepherding (see Acts 5).  A membership class that effectively teaches the philosophy and direction of the church plays a vital role in this process.

4.   Is healthy discipleship taught and modeled? Discipleship is the task of every believer. It is also one of the most difficult tasks of every believer. It takes time and is often very messy. Caring for someone spiritually is demanding and very often inconvenient.  Discipleship needs to be taught and modeled.  It must come from the top down in a church. If a pastor is not visibly passionate about making disciples, the people will follow.  Discipling is multifaceted and can take on many forms but the result has to be that a person becomes more like Christ and less like themselves in areas of living.  A healthy church reproduces.

5.    Is there a healthy prayer emphasis? Prayer is another very difficult discipline. Prayer speaks to our dependence upon Christ and ultimately displays our genuine faith in Him. Healthy praying is not horizontal but vertical. We don’t merely pray for manward things but pray heavenward.  Read the apostle Paul’s prayers for patterns (Col 1 and Eph 1) as well as Christ prayer he taught His disciples and then compare those prayers to our normal prayers (Matt 6).

Health is vital. There are certainly more points than this and we will look at more later.

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